#orodreth of gondor

[nyxshadowhawk]

I Read The Silmarillion So You Don't Have To, Part Six

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Chapter 14: Of Beleriand and its Realms In which we get a geography lesson.

Had enough political geography yet? I’m not going to summarize this whole chapter, because it’s exactly what it says on the tin: it describes the realms of Beleriand. It is impossible to make sense of this chapter without looking at the map. And most of it is information that we already know. For the sake of being complete, and of helping myself keep track of all this information, here’s what’s important:

The northern land where the Noldor live is called Hísilomé (in Quenya) or Hithlum (in Sindarin), both of which mean “Land of Mist.” It’s called that because of all the smoke that comes from Angband blows over it. It’s co-ruled by Fingolfin and his son Fingon.

In the westernmost part of Beleriand, on the coast, is a land called Nevrast. Turgon, Fingolfin’s other son, rules there. It’s completely surrounded by mountains in a kind of triangular shape, which is not how mountains work. Its population consists of an even mix of Noldor and Sindar.

Remember how I said there were two Minas Tiriths? The one we know is the second one, in Gondor, many thousands of years later. The first one is a watchtower built in a small mountain pass on the River Sirion, here in Beleriand. Finrod built it, but he leaves it in the care of his brother Orodreth. (“Minas Tirith” just means “guard tower” in Sindarin, so that’s why there’s two fortresses with that name.)

The River Sirion flows south. West of it is the realm of Nargothrond, ruled by Finrod, and east of it is Doriath, the forest ruled by King Thingol of the Sindar.

The eagles live on a chain of mountains called the Crissaegrim. (Yes, the name of the best sword in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a reference to this! )

In the eastern part of Beleriand is the River Gelion, running parallel to the Sirion. It has six rivers that flow into it. That land is called Ossiriand, and the Green Elves live there. Directly north is Thargelion, where Caranthir (another one of Fëanor’s sons) has his castle.

In the northeast is Lothlann, which is the plain that’s most exposed to Morgoth. Maedhros has his castle there.

I feel like this chapter should have come before the last one. It describes a bunch of places which have already been referenced in relation to each other. So, why are they being described now, after they’ve already become relevant to the story? Like, for example, the Thangorodrim. In this chapter, we’re told that the Thangorodrim are mountains made out of the refuse from Morgoth’s excavations while he was building his fortress. That would have been nice to know before Mædhros was nailed to the face of them. Back in the last chapter, the text just sort of assumed that we already know what the Thangorodrim are. I gathered from the context that they’re mountains and that they’re connected to Morgoth. I guess that’s all one really needs to know, right? No story actually needs this detailed a description of the geography… but this book is 300 pages of straight infodumping. So, we get all the geography, and out-of-order.

Okay, now that that’s over, let’s move on to something interesting!

Chapter 15: Of the Noldor in Beleriand In which a legendary city is built, and Thingol hears all the dirt on the Noldor.

Remember Turgon? He’s Fingolfin’s son and Fingon’s brother, and he received a prophetic dream from Ulmo, the Vala of Water. The dream led him to finding a hidden valley in the north of Beleriand. Feeling homesick for Valinor, Turgon decided to build a city on the hill in the center of the valley, which would be like a New Tirion — the original city of the Noldor, replicated in Middle Earth!

Turgon brought many of the most skilled Noldor to the valley to build the city, and then ditched them to live comfortably in Nevrast while they did the work for him. After fifty-two years, the city was complete. Turgon named it Ondolindë, which means “The Rock of the Music of Water” in Quenya. But it’s better known by its Sindarin name, Gondolin.

The Hidden City of Gondolin by Aesthetica

Gondonlin is the Elven City (which is why it’s kind of surprising to learn that it’s a copy of an even greater one). It’s gorgeous and bright white, with beautiful fountains and gardens. The giant tower in the middle is Turgon’s palace, and in it he creates images of the Two Trees of Valinor, wrought out of literal silver and gold; the gold one is called Glingal, and the silver one is called Belthil.

The most wondrous treasure of Gondolin is, of course, Turgon’s beautiful daughter Idril Celebrindal. Like Galadriel, she almost has the light of the Gold Tree, Laurelin, in her hair. So, that makes her one of the prettiest Elves alive.

Ulmo promises to protect Gondolin, and ensure that no one will ever be able to find it against his will. But he straight-up tells Turgon not to get too attached to Gondolin. (Actually, he says “the work of thy hands” — lol, Turgon did nothing to help build it.) Ulmo also tells Turgon that his little safe-haven isn’t going to protect him from the Curse, so, he can expect treachery within Gondolin’s walls at some point. The only hope is going to be someone who comes from the west.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

A third of the Noldor and even more of the Sindar pass secretly into Gondolin, apparently disappearing overnight. (Nevrast is completely abandoned) Then the gates are shut.

Meanwhile, Galadriel is enjoying her life in the court of Thingol. Remember, she’s one of the only Noldor Elves who’s allowed to be there, past the magic wall. She has long talks with Queen Melian, the Maia, about Valinor. But Galadriel refuses to say anything about how and why the Two Trees died. Melian can tell that something’s wrong, and asks Galadriel what happened. Galadriel says that she wants to put the past behind her, and try to have some hope for the future.

Melian presses her — she knows better than to think, as everyone else does, that the Noldor were sent by the Valar to swoop in and save her people from being assaulted by Orcs. She notes that the Noldor don’t speak of the Valar at all; they just sort of pretend that the Valar don’t exist. From that, she concludes that the Noldor aren’t messengers, they’re exiles. Something went badly wrong.

Galadriel caves, and tells Melian about the Silmarils, about how Morgoth stole them, about the death of Finwë, and about how the Noldor left Valinor willingly despite the Valar not wanting them to leave. She neglects to mention any of the worse stuff, like the Oath that Fëanor’s sons took, or the kinslaying, or the Curse, or the burning of the ships. Melian senses that she’s still holding back information. She doesn’t press Galadriel any more, but she does tell her husband Thingol about the Silmarils.

Only Melian is really able to put two and two together, and realize just what a big-ass deal the Silmarils really are. They contain the last remaining Light of Valinor, and if Morgoth has them, then any attempt at recovering them is almost inherently pointless. It’s going to take far more power than Elves have to take the fight to him. Fëanor tried that, and now he’s dead, even though he was one of the greatest Elves. If anyone else tries to take on Morgoth, they could risk destroying the world in the process. For better or worse, the fate of Arda is tied up with that of the Silmarils.

Thingol is distraught to hear that Finwë is dead, and figures he was right not to trust the Noldor. The only silver lining is that at least the Noldor will make good allies against Morgoth, because peace with him doesn’t seem to be an option. Melian tells him to be wary of Fëanor’s sons. She could read between the lines and figure out what Galadriel wasn’t telling her. Fëanor’s sons are all guilty of crimes against the Valar, their own families, and even themselves. There’s a lot of unresolved tension between them that’s only dormant for the time being, and it can only get worse from here. Thingol dismisses her concerns. All he cares about is that Fëanor’s sons will give him his best shot at taking down Morgoth. Whatever drama is between them is their business.

Melian and Thingol decide not to speak of this again, but rumor spreads amongst the Sindar about what the Noldor did to get kicked out of Valinor. Many of these rumors are spread by Morgoth. Spreading rumors was how he set the Noldor on their dark path in the first place, and the Sindar were too naïve to know not to believe rumors. Círdan, however, catches wise. He perceives that the rumors are being spread maliciously, but doesn’t think to blame Morgoth. He assumes that the Noldorin princes are spreading rumors to slander each other. He sends messengers to Thingol to tell him about the rumors.

By pure bad luck, Finrod and his brothers happen to be there in Thingol’s court, visiting their sister Galadriel. So, Thingol hears all the rumors while they’re there. He explodes at Finrod for having lied by omission. Finrod protests that he’s never done anything to Thingol, nor have any of the other Noldor. Thingol cooly responds that all the Noldor have blood on their hands for kinslaying, but they don’t try to defend themselves or seek pardon. Finrod has nothing to say to that.

But Angrod, his brother, speaks up. Angrod blames Fëanor for the whole thing. The other Noldor are really the victims in this situation, he claims, because they were intoxicated by Fëanor’s words, and then Fëanor abandoned them to freeze to death. The reason why Thingol hasn’t heard any of this before is because it’s an act of treason against the Noldor to talk about it. Surely, Thingol can understand that?

Melian is less than impressed. She points out that, according to Angrod’s own account, Mandos doomed all the Noldor. That means that he and his siblings are just as damned as the rest of them. They're all affected by the Curse.

Thingol is silent for a moment. Then he tells Angrod and co. to get out of his house. He’s not going to shut them out forever, because they’re family. He’s also going to maintain his friendship with Fingolfin’s people, because he needs them to take down Morgoth. But, he refuses to hear their language be spoken in his presence, and he commands that none of the Sindar use it, either. Anyone who speaks Quenya will be branded a kinslayer.

So, now you know why Sindarin is the dominant Elven language in Middle-earth.

That sort of puts a damper on Quenya; it seems like such a magical and elevated language, but now it’s associated with the Noldor’s crimes. I suppose that makes sense, if the Noldor are the ones who primarily speak it. But it also seems a bit draconian for Thingol to consider someone guilty of a serious crime just for speaking Quenya.

Quenya therefore ceases to be a spoken language, and becomes mainly used for writing lore or singing old songs. It’s the Elvish version of Latin.

After that, things become a little awkward for Galadriel in Thingol’s court, so she leaves it and comes to live with her brother Finrod in Nargothrond. She asks him why he hasn’t taken a wife yet. Finrod gets a flash of premonition, and tells her that nothing of his realm will remain to be inherited by a son. But the real truth is that he left his true love, Amarië, in Valinor.

Finrod by _star热爱生活呀巴扎嘿

Chapter 16: Of Maeglin In which we meet an edgy bad-boy Elf.

Did you remember that Fingolfin had a daughter? It’s okay, I didn’t either. Her name is Aredhel Ar-Feiniel, and she’s known as the White Lady. She lives with Turgon, her brother, in Nevrast. She follows him to Gondolin, but she doesn’t really like it there. She prefers to wander freely in forests or ride horses in the fields, and she can’t do that if she’s effectively imprisoned by mountains and high walls on all sides.

Two hundred years pass (which I’m guessing is like twenty in elf years), and she finally asks Turgon if she can leave. Turgon doesn’t want her to leave. If anyone leaves Gondolin, then that risks revealing its existence to everyone else in the world, and that would be bad. Eventually he gives in, but tells her that she’s only allowed to meet with Fingon, their brother. Aredhel takes offense at this. She’s Turgon’s sister, not his lackey, and he has no right to tell her where to go or what to do. She leaves, and Turgon tells three of his lords to go with her to protect her, with the condition that they come straight back.

Aredhel immediately decides not to go see Fingon. She wants to find the sons of Fëanor (Maedhros, Caranthir, and co.), because they’re her friends. She tries to cut through the forest of Doriath, but the Sindar turn her away, because Thingol hates the Noldor now. She has to go around the long way. That way is dangerous, and polluted with poisonous water and evil creatures left behind by Morgoth and Ungoliant. Aredhel gets lost, and her escorts barely escape with their lives. They make it back to Gondolin, but have to give the terrible news to Turgon that they lost their charge along the way.

Turgon is grief-stricken and very, very frustrated. Aredhel survives, though, and ends up in Himlad, the land of Fëanor’s sons Celegorm and Curufin. They’re away, traveling further east with their brother Caranthir, but Aredhel is welcomed by Celegorm’s people.

Aredhel enjoys herself for a while, wandering in the forests like she used to, but a year passes and Celegorm still hasn’t come back. She starts wandering further and further, until she ends up in a small forest on the eastern edge of Doriath.

Aredhel lost in the dark forest by @gemennair

This forest is the darkest of all the forests in Beleriand, and it’s inhabited by an elf called Eöl, known as the Dark Elf. Eöl isn’t actually a Dark Elf (Moriquendi); he’s one of the Sindar, but he left Doriath when the magic wall went up. Now he’s basically nocturnal. He blames the Noldor for the return of Morgoth. He mostly doesn’t interact with other Elves, but he does like Dwarves, and gives them information about the Elves when they ask. The Dwarves taught him metalwork in exchange, and he designed a special kind of armor that’s thin and light and yet repels all weapons. It’s jet black, and he wears it all the time.

Skulking in the shadows, Eöl sees Aredhel enter his forest, and he lusts after her. He enchants the forest so that she can’t find her way out, and the forest always turns her towards the center. (Kind of like the Old Forest does to the Hobbits while they’re trying to pass through it in Fellowship.) When she finally arrives at Eöl’s house, tired from wandering, he welcomes her in. And that was the last her family heard of her for a long time.

Aredhel and Eöl by Elena Kukanova

It’s unknown exactly how Aredhel responded to Eöl’s intent to marry her. Maybe she fell in love with this edgy bad-boy elf in his spooky forest. But she landed in kind of the same situation that she was in back in Gondolin. Eöl lets her wander, at least, but only at night. He also forbids her from seeking out the other Noldor, and the sons of Fëanor in particular, which is what she wanted to do in the first place. Honestly, their relationship reminds me superficially of Hades and Persephone.

Eöl and Aredhel have a son. Secretly, Aredhel gives him a name in her forbidden native tongue of Quenya — Lómion, which means “Child of the Twilight.” Eöl doesn’t give him a name until he turns twelve, and that name is Maeglin, which means “sharp glance.” Maeglin grows up to resemble the Noldor, but he is more like his father in temperament.

Maeglin by @elfinfen

His father takes him to meet the Dwarves, who teach him mining, smithing, and metalwork. But Maeglin has a special relationship with his mother, and enjoys hearing her tales of Valinor and the House of Fingolfin. He especially likes hearing about Turgon and Gondolin.

In telling all these stories, Aredhel realizes just how much she misses Gondonlin. She wonders how she could have left in the first place. After such a long time in the dark shadows of the forest, the bright walls and fountains of Gondonlin seem lovely. But she refuses to tell Maeglin where Gondolin is, because that is such an important secret.

Eöl is also mad that Maeglin wants to meet his Noldor relatives. He’s an old enough Sinda to still identify himself as a member of the Teleri, and therefore, he thinks of his distant relatives in Valinor as his own people. He forbids Maeglin from seeking out the Noldor for the same reason that King Thingol banned Quenya — he takes the Noldor’s crime of kinslaying personally. (He probably should have thought of that before deciding to marry Aredhel, but whatever.) Maeglin, like any edgy teenager, does not take this well. He stops going to visit the Dwarves with his father, and Eöl starts to distrust his own son.

One summer, when Eöl is gone on one of his visits to the Dwarves, Maeglin suggests to his mother that they go to Gondolin. What’s the point of sticking around? She wants to see her people again, and Maeglin has learned all he can from Eöl. There’s no sense in remaining trapped in a dark forest with nothing else to do. So, they up and leave.

When Eöl gets back, he is furious to find them gone. Despite his hatred of the sun, he chases after them, but he’s waylaid by Curufin, one of Fëanor’s sons. Curufin asks what he’s doing there. Eöl lies, saying that his wife and son were on a casual visit to their relatives, and that it only makes sense that he should be with them. Curufin sees right through him, and tells him that they’re already gone. He gives Eöl permission to pass through, but tells him that the sooner he leaves, the better.

Eöl by @bohemianweasel

Eöl snipes that this isn’t the proper way to treat a kinsman. Curufin replies that it’s pretty rich for Eöl to ride upon his wife’s title when he’s been keeping her imprisoned in a forest for decades. If he wants the honor due to a kinsman, he should have acted like one. Curufin also gives Eöl a warning: He should return to his forest now. If he pursues his family, he’ll never come back.

If Eöl hated the Noldor before, now he really hates the Noldor.

As you probably guessed, he decides to chase after his family, and he eventually catches up with them just as they’re about to enter Gondolin. Gondolin, the secret city that no one is supposed to know the entrance to.

You can imagine how Turgon must have reacted when he sees his sister come back with a son in tow. She went out for a simple family visit, and returned with an adult child that she had with some creepy dude in a dark forest. But he’s happier to have her back and see her safe. Turgon also takes a liking to Maeglin, and thinks that he’s worthy to be one of the Princes of the Noldor. Maeglin swears fealty to Turgon.

Gondolin surpasses Maeglin’s wildest dreams. After having spent nearly his whole life in a dark forest, Gondolin is a whirl of light and color and interesting people. But more than anything else, he’s attracted to the king’s daughter, Idril… his first cousin.

Meanwhile, Eöl finds his way in. You know, the one thing Turgon didn’t want to have happen. Because he claims to be Aredhel’s husband, the guards restrain him (with difficulty) and bring him to Turgon. Aredhel is aghast that her abusive husband followed her all the way to her secret safe haven, but she tells the guards not to kill him. After all, he is telling the truth, and he’s still Maeglin’s father.

Eöl stands “proud and sullen” before Turgon, but despite his bad attitude, Turgon treats him honorably. Unlike Curufin, he accepts Eöl as a kinsman, and tells him that he’s welcome to stay in the city so long as he doesn’t leave it. Eöl goes on a rant about how this is the Tereri’s land, and (paraphrased) “you colonizing kinslayers don’t have any right to tell me where I can and can’t go, and how dare you keep my son from me!” He commands Maeglin to come with him, but Maeglin huffs and says nothing.

Turgon retorts that the only reason why Eöl’s woods are safe is because the Noldor protect the land from Orcs, so, he owes them. If it weren’t for the Noldor, he’d be Morgoth’s slave in Angband. And besides, you can’t argue with a king in his own castle. Either Eöl will live in Gondolin, or he’ll die there, and Maeglin will get the same choice.

Turgon by _star热爱生活呀巴扎嘿

Eöl just stands silently for several minutes. You could cut the tension with a knife. Then, in a sudden motion, he takes a javelin that he had concealed in his cloak and throws it straight at Maeglin. If he’s gonna die there, he’s taking Maeglin with him. Aredhel jumps in front of her son, and the javelin hits her in the shoulder.

Eöl is instantly beset by guards, who bind him and lead him away. Maeglin is just silent through all this, not knowing how to react. Aredhel and Idril both try to convince Turgon to be merciful during Eöl’s trial, but that night, Aredhel dies. The tip of the javelin was poisoned. Therefore, Turgon shows Eöl no mercy. He sentences him to die by being thrown from the top of the tower. As he falls, he curses Maeglin to have all his efforts fail and to suffer the same fate.

Caragdur - the same fate by SaMo-art

Most of the people of Gondolin believe justice has been served, but Idril is troubled. From that day onward, she distrusts Maeglin.

For the time being, Maeglin’s life is good. He rises through the ranks of Turgon’s court, and Turgon favors him. He finds many valuable metals in the mountains around Gondolin, and forges powerful steel weapons for the people of Gondolin. Maeglin is also wise, tough, and valiant in battle, making him a true asset to Gondolin. All is well… for now.

The only problem is that he’s still in love with Idril, who’s his first cousin. The Noldor don’t marry their cousins, and until now, none of them have wanted to. Idril also doesn’t love him; she can’t help but associate him with his insane father, and she thinks there’s a darkness in him. Somehow, he’s affected by the Curse. Slowly, Maeglin’s love for Idril festers into resentment. I’m sure that won’t cause any problems down the line.

Chapter 17: Of the Coming of Men into the West In which the Men finally arrive in Beleriand.

It’s been three hundred years since the Noldor first arrived in Beleriand. One day, Finrod Felagund is out exploring the countryside, and he sees cheery campfires and hears the sound of singing. That’s weird, he thinks, the Green Elves who live here don’t light campfires or sing at night. He worries that they might be Orcs, and sneaks closer, but he doesn’t recognize their language. They’re humans, the first Men to enter Beleriand. These Men are the people of Bëor the Old, and they’re singing because they believe that they’ve finally found a paradisal land without fear of Morgoth. Finrod finds them endearing.

When they go to sleep, Finrod sneaks further into their camp, picks up a crudely-carven harp, and begins to play. The Men wake up and are spellbound by the beauty of the faerie king’s music. Finrod sings about the creation of the world, and about Valinor. Although the Men don’t understand his language, images of what he’s singing appear in their minds, and so they learn about how the world was created.

By _star热爱生活呀巴扎嘿

By Elena Kukanova

By pan_brooke

By @pansen1802

(I couldn’t pick just one image for this scene. There are so many good ones!)

After all the Elf Drama that we’ve had to sit through, it’s easy to forget what the Elves really are. They’re the Fair Folk. This scene really speaks to their folkloric roots.

At first, the Men think that Finrod is a Vala, which they’ve heard of. Finrod decides to stay with the Men for some time, in order to teach them things. They call him Nómin, which in their language means “the Wise.” Finrod can understand the Men’s speech realtively easily, because he can read their minds, and because they learned how to speak from the Dark Elves (the Avari) in the east. (This is important because it means that all of the Children of Ilúvatar’s languages descend from the original language of the Elves. It’s the Proto-Indo-European of Middle-earth.)

Finrod asks Bëor why the Men are there. Bëor doesn’t really know, because Men have short lives, and it’s taken many generations for them to get this far. Whatever it was they were fleeing in the first place, it was bad, and they’ve heard enough about Valinor to know that there’s Light in the west. Morgoth did something to corrupt them, as he always does. In fact, as soon as Men arrived in Middle-earth, Morgoth considered this such a big deal that he abandoned the war in Beleriand, putting Sauron in charge of it. Morgoth immediately went to go mess with the Men. Therefore, there’s some human equivalent of the Noldor’s Original Sin of kinslaying. But what it is, no one knows. Bëor tells Finrod that there are more Men heading westwards.

Some of the Green Elves send messengers to Finrod to ask about the Men. They’re not happy that these refugees of an unknown race are moving onto their land. They consider Men their enemies, because the Men cut down trees and kill animals. They tell Finrod to tell the Men to either go back the way they came, or move forward.

Finrod advises the Men to keep moving. They head further West, so that they’re just east of Doriath and just south of Eöl’s dark forest. This is the land that Amrod and Amras, the twin sons of Fëanor, rule over. This land is now called Estolad, “Encampment.” By that point, a year has passed since Finrod first found the Men, and he decides to return home to his own palace, Nargothrond. Bëor begs to come with him and serve him, so he does, leaving his son in charge of the Men.

Soon after, more groups of Men make their way into Beleriand. They settle in whatever little niches they can find amongst the lands that the Elves had divided up amongst themselves. The Elves are extremely interested in the Men, whom they call Edain, “the Second People.” Both Noldor and Sindar alike go to see them. They send messengers to welcome the Men, and some of the Men go to serve in the courts of the Elven kings. Overtime, more and more of them go to serve the Elves.

Thingol, however, is unhappy about the coming of Men. He already was not pleased about the arrival of the Noldor in his lands, even before he found out that they were kinslayers and banned their language. Now, a whole separate group of refugees is invading his kingdom from the other direction, dividing it into even smaller portions. What’s worse, he keeps having troubling dreams about them. The only person he’s willing to talk to about this is Finrod. Thingol decrees that the Men are only allowed to live in the north of Beleriand, and that the Elf lords that they serve are responsible for them. None of the Men are allowed to come into Doriath.

Melian knows that the arrival of Men means that big changes are coming. She whispers to Galadriel that one of the Men will eventually break through her magic wall, because the power of that Man’s destiny will overcome her own. People will sing about that event until the distant future, when Middle-earth is unrecognizable.

Many of the Men are still interested in getting to Valinor, so they can live with the Gods. They’re frustrated and disappointed to know that Valinor is even further west, across the sea. The only God that’s there with them is Morgoth, the Lord of the Dark. (This echoes the Christian idea that God is removed from the world, while Satan is here on earth with us and troubles us while we’re alive.) The Men basically have two options: to try to get across the sea to Valinor, or to try to help the Elves defeat Morgoth.

One Man, Amlach, makes the bold suggestion that there is no Valinor, and that the Elves have been lying to them. The Men have no proof that the Gods exist, and they don’t even have any proof that Morgoth exists beyond the vague evil that their great-grandfathers fled. Maybe it’s the Elves and not Morgoth who want to take over the world! Sound familiar? These are basically all the same conspiracy theories that drove the Noldor out of Valinor.

It’s darkly telling that the source of evil in The Silmarillion is conspiracy theories, lies, misunderstandings, and miscommunications. Morgoth didn’t force the Noldor to kill their relatives — they did that on their own. Now, he’s trying the same tactic all over again with the Men. All he needs to do is sew distrust amongst the people, so that they’ll attack each other instead of him, and destroy everything in the process. This speaks to Tolkien’s general theme about the power of language, but it also seems particularly poignant right now.

Morgoth’s not done yet, though. Despite his best efforts to sew distrust, the friendship between Elves and Men still holds. He decides to try a more direct approach, and sends Orcs to attack a group of Men. The Men are a lot weaker against the Orcs than the Elves are, and they barely survive the siege. Caranthir arrives with the cavalry at the last minute to drive back the Orcs. Caranthir offers the Men protection in his lands in the north. Their leader, Haleth, refuses; she doesn’t want to live under someone else’s rule. She tells Caranthir that she’d rather go further west. She gathers what’s left of her people, and brings them to Estolad.

Haleth leads her people further and further west. They travel through the land north of Doriath, the same poisonous land where Aredhel originally got lost. Many of her people die, and the survivors regret making the journey, but it’s too late to go back now. She tries to restore their way of life best she can.

Haleth by @yidanyuan

Now, Haleth and her people are living in a forest called Brethil, northwest of Doriath. This is too close for Thingol’s comfort. Finrod vouches for Haleth and her people, and tells Thingol about the hell that they went through. Thingol reluctantly permits them to live in the forest, so long as they remain outside the magic wall and help defend the forest from Orcs. He worries that the Men and Orcs could become allies and try to attack Doriath. Haleth is disturbed that Thingol would let that thought cross his mind; why would she ally herself with Orcs, after Orcs laid siege to her village and killed her father and brother? If Thingol wants her to kill Orcs, he doesn’t need to tell her twice. She remains in Brethil until she dies, at which point her people build a great barrow for her.

Overtime, the Men learn Sindarin. They remain enthralled by the Elves, and want to learn as much of their lore as possible. But the Elves recognize that Men need to have kingdoms and leaders of their own. The different ethnic groups of Men are therefore given their own lands by the Elven Kings. In addition to Haleth and her people, there are two other important kings of Men:

One of the kings of Men is Hador Lórindol (“Goldenhead”), a member of Fingolfin’s court, whom Fingolfin is fond of. Hador’s people speak both Sindarin and their own language, which eventually evolves into the language of Númenor (which in turn evolves into Westron, the in-universe language that The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are written in, rendered as Modern English by our good Professor Tolkien). One of Hador’s sons is named Galdor. Galdor has two sons, Hurin and Huor. They each have a son — Húrin’s son is Túrin, and Huor’s son is Tuor. Tuor has a son, Earendil, whose name should ring a bell. Húrin, Huor, Túrin, and Tuor are all going to be important characters going forward in The Silmarillion. Earendil is the father of Elrond and his brother Elros, and much further down the line, Aragorn will be born from his lineage.

The other important king of Men is Boromir — no, not that one, this one is the son of Bëor the Old. One of his great-great-grandchildren is Morwen, the mother of Túrin, and another one of his great-great-grandchildren is Rían, the mother of Tuor. A third great-great-grandchild is Beren, who’s also a significant character going forward, and his daughter becomes the wife of Earendil, therefore the many-times-great-grandmother of Aragorn.

TL;DR: These two important kings’ grandchildren will marry each other, and their descendants will be the Kings of Numenor, whose line will eventually end with Aragorn. This is where it starts. Also, most of these great-grandchildren are about to become relevant here in the Silm.

Bëor is the first of the Men to die of old age, rather than being killed in battle. The Men are struck by their own mortality. They’re not just vulnerable to being killed — unlike the Elves, they actually have an expiration date. The scope of Men’s lives is barely a hundred years. In the First Age, the Men are practically mayflies. They also have no idea where they go when they die.

Still, the Men that settled in Beleriand are vastly superior to the Men that remained in the East, because they had the opportunity to learn skills, lore, and craftsmanship from the Elves. Also, the men are elevated somewhat just from having seen the Elves’ beautiful faces, because the Elves saw Valinor. Even secondhand, the light of Valinor is just that powerful.

#the silmarillion #the silm #the silm fandom #the silm art #silmarillion #summary #j r r tolkien #the lord of the rings #lotr #finrod #finrod felagund #eol #maeglin #haleth #curufin #celegorm #turgon #aredhel #tolkien #middle earth #elves #tolkien elves #silm elves #beleriand

[tolkien-feels]

You know, I’ve always thought that this sentence was slightly weird: “Then Felagund gave the crown of Nargothrond to Orodreth his brother to govern in his stead; and Celegorm and Curufin said nothing, but they smiled and went from the halls.“

Fandom consensus seems to be that Orodreth is just Bad at ruling, which... I guess he doesn’t have a good track record in canon, but I doubt he’s that bad, because Finrod could very easily have given Minas Tirith’s rule to somebody else.

But more than that... What bothers me about C&C’s reaction is that when Feanor is pitching the Flight of the Noldor, Orodreth is one of the very, very few elves who not only isn’t persuaded, but who actually speaks up against Feanor. If Feanor at his most persuasive can’t manipulate Orodreth, I don’t see why C&C would be so excited about him ruling Nargothrond. There’s a non-zero chance they’ll never be able to manipulate him.

I mean, to be fair, the political situation is unstable and any change in the power balance can be an advantage if they play their cards right, but the impression I get from the scene is that they find Orodreth getting the crown a better outcome than Nargothrond being left without a leader - it’s like they think through Orodreth, they will be able to rule, while if there had been no leader, they’d have to first establish their right to rule.

Anyway, I have a theory that might explain how Orodreth goes from “impossible to be persuaded” to “perfect pawn.”

Sauron. Sauron is the theory.

Remember how the Silm tells us that Sauron’s dominion is torment and fear? That checks out - everybody in LotR who has close encounters with either him or his high-ranking minions is not just momentarily rattled, but is usually left permanently traumatized. This is true even when there’s no physical damage associated with it - Sauron doesn’t have to physically harm you to horrify you for good. Hell, 90% of his strategy in the siege of Gondor is to terrify everybody ahead of time with horror and despair.

Anyway, we are told (or a different Minas Tirith) that Sauron “took Minas Tirith by assault, for a dark cloud of fear fell upon those that defended it; and Orodreth was driven out, and fled to Nargothrond.“ Which, again, checks out.

And I have to assume Sauron would have targeted Orodreth specifically during this assault, right? Scare the leader and the followers will be afraid too.

Anyway, I’m not 100% sure whether Orodreth is the sole survivor who makes it to Nargothrond (which I think unlikely) or if he takes some others with him, but either way: however many Minas Tirith refugees there were, they must have had a very strong reaction when this happened:

And after Celegorm Curufin spoke, more softly but with no less power, conjuring in the minds of the Elves a vision of war and the ruin of Nargothrond. So great a fear did he set in their hearts that never after until the time of Túrin would any Elf of that realm go into open battle 

All elves canonically freak out, but those who already have the Sauron-induced magic PTSD were probably hit harder. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable to imagine Orodreth was visibly shaken by Curufin’s words, not because he’s a coward, but because of what Sauron has done to him in the past.

It’d be awesome if Celegorm’s Feanor-like words have no effect on Orodreth, but Curufin’s scare tactics get to him more than they get to anyone. And if C&C notice it (which I’m sure they would), then yeah, of course Orodreth is the perfect target. Sauron basically primed him to be bullied by anyone cruel enough to use fear as a weapon. Remember the mysterious “Spell of Bottomless Dread“ that Melkor uses on his thralls in some versions? I’m imagining something similar to that

[ecoamerica]

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[arafinweanappreciation]

Literally no one asked for this, but also I was inspired to finally write this all out because I've seen a couple of other posts about this cross my dash. So. I said that one day I would write a post about the parallels between Finrod and Turgon and their stories.

That day has come.

First off, they were born in the same year. If you look at the (sparse and rather unreliable) data we have on timelines for when other elves who are considered of the same generation are born, this is VERY uncommon. The only time it happens again is Aredhel and Galadriel, iirc, and I haven't had the time or energy to unpack any narrative parallels they might have as of yet.

Then, of course, we have very little information about their time in Valinor except that they were besties. Which makes sense. We DO know, however, that they both fell in love with Vanyarin women, Elenwe and Amarie, and lost them during the Flight of the Noldor. Elenwe dying during the crossing of the Helcaraxe, and Finrod leaving Amarie behind. Finrod and Amarie were seperated because she didn't follow him, and Turgon and Elenwe were seperated because she did.

After arriving in Beleriand, Finrod builds Minas Tirith and Turgon builds Vinyamar. It's been a while since I've reread the silm, so I actually don't remember a whole lot of details about Vinyamar. But my big point here is that Minas Tirith is on Tol Sirion on the river Sirion, and Vinyamar faced the sea. Both cities were strongly associated with bodies of water. There's also an interesting contrast in their fates. While Vinyamar was never touched by Morgoth or his servants, Minas Tirith eventually become Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the fortress of Sauron. Vinyamar was also an important location for Tuor, and Tol-in-Gaurhoth became an important location for Beren, both of whom ended up marrying elvish princesses of hidden realms.

Of course, there's the most obvious connection, with them both being given a dream by Ulmo instructing them to build hidden strongholds, after which they leave their original cities to build new ones. They also both have a tendency to take in and befriend mortal men. Húrin and Huor for Turgon and Beor, Barahir, and Andreth for Finrod. They were also both rescued from almost certain death in battle by said mortal men

And then we've got the stories of their deaths and the ruin of their cities. While these don't match up chronologically, they do have a LOT of parallels.

They both took in a nephew after one of their siblings died. Orodreth and Maeglin. Orodreth is trying desperately to fill Finrod's role, while Maeglin wants to undermine Turgon. Both stories heavily involve the influence of a mortal man who was close to the king. Also, Maeglin's and Turin's influence over Turgon and Orodreth, respectively, cause the kings to ignore the advice of even their most trusted advisors against their better judgement. Ultimately, both are destroyed.

Their deaths are also, like, not quite mirror images of each other. Finrod, who spent his time in Beleriand making friends, died with only one other person by his side, in a dungeon deep underground, because he was trying to help along what becomes one of the greatest love stories in Middle Earth. Turgon, who spent all his time in Beleriand hiding away, died surrounded by people who refused to leave him, in a high tower, because of Maeglin's love turned to darkness. They were both betrayed by family members they had taken in (Celegorm, Curufin, and Maeglin), and died in the towers they built.

Turgon's legacy is deeply entwined in the fate of Middle Earth through Idril and her descendants, while Finrod ultimately leaves very little behind. However, they both have massive lasting impacts on the Edain of Numenor. Especially the royal family, with the Kings of Numenor, Arnor, and Gondor being descended from Turgon, and the Ring of Barahir being passed down as an heirloom and symbol of the kingship (at least when they want to be associated with the eldar).

I don't know if there's more narrative significance to this than I'm seeing at the moment, I just noticed this after rereading one time and couldn't stop thinking about it. It's one of the reasons I love their relationship so much.

#tl;dr: finrod and turgon's lives share the same framework with mirror image details woven through it #and it's fascinating #correct me if i'm wrong on any of these points #or feel free to add more #parallels!!!! #silm #silmarillion #finrod #finrod felagund #turgon #next in this series of overly long and probably overanalyzing posts by me: #an examination of the noldor's relationship with fire and water #but that's way more disjointed and mostly just me with thumbtacks and string right now

[thelordofgifs]

I know you said that it was easier to send via replies on the original post but I am afraid of the character limit. but here is a start to the list! I wasn't sure about Gwindeth, because the only thing that popped up was LOTRO but I added that anyways :)

Obscure Blorbos

Hareth: The daughter of Halmir, the chieftain of the Haladin. She married Galdor and is the mother of Hurin and Huor.

Belen: Younger son of Beor the old. An ancestor of Beren one hand

Gwindeth: A spirit who watched over lake Evendim and the surrounding Anorian ruins in the LOTRO game. She was also known as “The Blue Lady of Nenuial” (?) 

Ilwen: Born at Cuivienen to a younger generation. Married Ingwe, and had several children before Orome found them.

Eilinel: Wife of Gorlim, who went to fight in the Dagor Bragollach. During this battle her house was plundered and she would be killed.

Enel: The third of the original Elf Fathers who awoke in Cuivienen. The father of the third clan that would become the Teleri

Hirgon: The Messenger the Steward of Gondor sent to bring The Red Arrow to Theoden the king of Rohan during the War of the Ring.

Gelmir (Cirdan’s Messenger) : Sent by Cirdan to tell Orodreth of Ulmo’s warning of Nargothrond’s fall. He tells Orodreth to destroy the bridge which Orodreth and Turin ignore.

I will do more later but my eyes hurt right now :)

Amazing bestie thank you so so much ❤️❤️❤️ and I hope your eyes feel better soon!!

#asks #obscure tolkien blorbo #curufinswife

[bretwalda-lamnguin]

🔥1, 2, 21?

the character everyone gets wrong

Oooh, there’s a few I could go for here. Going to go for Faramir. He’s not some soft boy who needs protecting. He’s a giant Númenorian prince with mind reading powers who Eowyn thinks could defeat any man of Rohan in battle. He doesn’t need or want to be coddled (I actually think Boromir's protectiveness chafes on him a little bit). He’s usually kind and gentle because he chooses to be, but there’s a reason everyone says he’s very like Denethor.

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

I headcanon most characters as switches tbh, but I’m going to go for Finduilas Faelivrin. She clearly has a type for headstrong warriors who like to get their way. I think she also deeply wants someone to take care of her, the way she tries to with everyone else. Sub bottom is my diagnosis, quite happy to let someone else be in control as long as she trusts them, and she deserves to be pampered tbh. I probably would go with Orodreth here too. Like father like daughter.  

21. part of canon you think is overhyped.

A strange one, but Helm Hammerhand. Seems to be the most talked about part of the LOTR appendicies, he’s even getting an anime! I just don’t see it. There’s so much content about him, but the man who actually won the war, Beregond of Gondor gets nothing. He defeated three Corsair invasions of Gondor and then showed up in Rohan to save them, and no one has heard of him! Top 10 greatest generals Gondor has ever produced and Helm is more famous because he had a good punch. I’ll never understand.

#asks #choose violence ask game

[vardaaa]

I posted 17,117 times in 2022

That's 12,910 more posts than 2021!

29 posts created (0%)

17,088 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@ltkitkat

@goweninsane

@strawberry-crocodile

@dragonsorcery

@shitposting-hobbits-to-gallifrey

I tagged 3,352 of my posts in 2022

#silm - 616 posts

#lotr - 433 posts

#dracula daily - 327 posts

#star wars - 248 posts

#rop - 185 posts

#maedhros - 114 posts

#maglor - 97 posts

#goncharov - 95 posts

#space - 77 posts

#the witcher - 75 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#the flower of the white tree makes me guess it’s tar miriel but i’m probably wrong and it’s like isildur’s sister from the leaks or smth

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Concerning Amazon, Finrod, some old leaks, and Dread.

I’m beginning to put together a few pieces and I don’t like the way it’s looking. So I vaguely recall some leaks a while ago about one of the show’s antagonists being a leader of Sauron’s forces who was a corrupted brother of Galadriel. The Vanity Fair article says, “As the series begins, Galadriel is hunting down the last remnants of [Morgoth and Sauron’s] collaborators, who claimed the life of her brother.” Given that it refers to brother (singular), I’m assuming they’re getting rid of the other 2/3 (depending on if you count Orodreth) for family-tree-simplicity since Finrod/Angrod/Aegnor/Orodreth all died at the hands of Morgoth/Sauron’s forces.

However. One of the shots of the trailer is allegedly of a flashback to the First Age featuring Finrod and some soldiers in a clash with some orcs. If the leaks are correct, which I’m praying they aren’t, then Amazon might have decided it would be cooler to make Finrod NOT die saving Beren but instead tortured/brainwashed/corrupted/otherwise manipulated into the commander of Sauron’s forces post-War of Wrath. This idea is stupid for a number of reasons, not the least of which that Finrod is canonically reembodied in Valinor before War of Wrath even starts, much less serving Sauron in any capacity.

16 notes - Posted February 13, 2022

#4

Current mood while waiting for tomorrow’s trailer

38 notes - Posted February 12, 2022

#3

Well if nothing else, Numenor looks beautiful in the trailer

The statue is giving me both Colossus of Rhodes and Argonath vibes which is great! The way the buildings are built into the hills makes me think of the Mediterranean, which tracks since Gondor has Greco-Roman inspired architecture. Meneltarma looks amazing. Trailer shot #1 is good. The same cannot be said for the rest.

77 notes - Posted February 13, 2022

#2

HOW DOES THIS

TURN INTO THIS

They did him so dirty 😭😭

80 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

With the title announcement for the Rings of Power/Amazon lotr show: no gatekeeping. We are not going to gatekeep the Silmarillion and other extended Tolkien lore from the show fans. No matter what Amazon does to the original material, absolutely no gatekeeping about show fans not being “real fans” or anything like that. My hopes have been raised slightly by Wheel of Time not getting completely butchered but they’re called adaptations not book-to-screen-reproductions for a reason.

301 notes - Posted January 19, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[ao3feed-tolkien]

Haldir and Berúthiel

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/OzLBNq2

by what_katy_did_1234

Cothion, the new young half-Haradric diplomat with Gondor’s Embassy to Harad, invites his colleagues to his birthday party. Various cultural miscommunications ensue, including accidental courtship, the most annoying chaperones ever, and an extraordinary solution to Cothion’s father’s objection to the entire situation.

Words: 18844, Chapters: 10/10, Language: English

Series: Part 36 of LOTR fan fiction

Fandoms: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Haldir (OC), Cothion (OC), Nisroch (OC), Tarie (OC), Beruthiel (OC), Idis of Emyn Arnen (OC), Thorongil of Galaridh (OC), Castamir (OC), Livien (OC), Wilwarin (OC), Taron the butler (OC), Orodreth (Haldir’s brother) (OC), Thorondir (Haldir’s brother) (OC), Gaelwen (Haldir’s sister) (OC), Pelendur (OC), Raithril (OC), Erthiriel (OC), Gudion (OC), Almiel (OC), Justice Denethor (OC)

Relationships: Haldir/Beruthiel

Additional Tags: Inspired by The Lord of the Rings, Post-Canon, Romance, Cultural Differences, Cultural Appropriation, Marriage Proposal, Accidental Marriage, Gondor, Harad, Courtship, Period-Typical Racism, Bigotry & Prejudice

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/OzLBNq2

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #Tolkien #JRR Tolkien #Tolkien works #ao3 #fan fiction

[arofili]

the line of elros ❖ stewards of gondor ❖ headcanon disclaimer

          Belecthor I was the son of Húrin II, and was the fifteenth Ruling Steward of Gondor. During his rule, the Corsairs of Umbar once more threatened Gondor, and he spent much time and resources defending the coasts. Though the Corsairs were not defeated, Gondor managed to lock them in stalemate for many years.           The wife of Belecthor was Glóredhel, a charming woman who kept cheer throughout Minas Tirith even while her husband was away fighting pirates. She threw many large parties to distract the worried public, and became well-beloved by her people.           Glóredhel bore Belecthor two children: a son, Orodreth, and a daughter, Morwen.

#tolkienedit #oneringnet #silm #silmarillion #lotr #gondor #belecthor i #belecthor i's wife #oc gloredhel of gondor #orodreth of gondor #morwen of gondor #my edit #my writing #edit writing #headcanons #tefain nin #line of elros #stewards of gondor #finally a short caption...................

[ceescedasticity]

hello, I have written some Terrible Things, apologies

perhaps "Ghâsh-bagronk", perhaps a prologue?

(They know, of course, that unhoused spirits are vulnerable to Morgoth.

"Should you be slain, follow the call to the Halls of Waiting, where it is safe," Melian says.

"In spite of the Doom, we <em>must</em> answer the call of Mandos," Fingolfin says.

"If you fall, leave the Oath to the rest of us and follow the call to Mandos," Maedhros tells his brothers, all together and then each individually. "Please."

"Follow the call to the Halls of Mandos," says Turgon, says Finrod, says Thingol, says Círdan, says Caranthir, says Orodreth, says Dior, says Idril, says Gil-galad, says Fingon says Angrod says Aegnor says Maglor says Galadriel says Lalwen says Curufin says Celegorm says Aredhel says Amrod says Amras says Nimloth says Celeborn says Celebrimbor says Oropher says Elrond.

And yet If I can just buy another minute of delay—

And yet Shouldn't I have been called? Did I miss it?

And yet No, fuck him.

And yet Two voices are calling my name, which—?

And yet, and yet, and yet.)

Sometimes orcs throw themselves into the Sea.

It is observed first at the end of the War of Wrath. The herald Eönwë says most emphatically that they should be allowed to do so unhindered, though he does not say why.

It happens most often in the wake of enemy defeats, but now and then otherwise they come, singly or in small groups, and run out into the waves, never looking back until they went under for the last time. As if the whips of their masters were behind them, some say.

As if seeking salvation, others say.

(An Age before the Girdle of Melian is raised, a few of those who will become Marchwardens of Doriath come to the King and Queen with concerns.

They feel there are orcs they have killed more than once. Not as if they're rising up — but they are slain, the bodies are disposed of, and then some time later the same orc will return in a new company.

"What happens to them when they die?" Beleg asks.

"That is hidden from me," says Melian. "But in this matter your fears are my fears."

"Is there nothing that can be done?" asks Elu, for this is the second terrible revelation; the Sindar have already concluded that it is no coincidence to see something like the faces of those lost before the Journey, among the orcs.

"Perhaps if they were brought before me," says Melian.

"Not a risk we can take often," says Elu. "Do not tell the people of this. It would hurt them, to no purpose."

Some few orcs, no more than a half-dozen, are dragged by force before Melian the Queen, and she can give them a chance. But they are most often too angry or afraid to take it, and Melian deems it not worth the risk and the suffering. And of course after the land is fenced it will never happen again.)

Sometimes orcs run away.

Actually orcs run away quite often — from their masters, from prey that outmatches them, from hunters seeking them, from one another when they quarrel.

But sometimes orcs run away from everything. An orc or three will steal away alone and travel leagues in stealth, then find a cave, or a dark and lonely forest, and stay there. Some of them hunt travelers, but many subsist off small animals, even groups of two or more. A tale tells of an orc who lived in a cave in Gondor for two centuries, only coming out at night to steal chickens.

They are still dangerous. They see all living things as their enemy, and if the Dark Lord calls they will answer.

But does it not move one to pity, that even an orc might long for a peaceful life?

(By the Second Age, the theory… is there. Those who care to look can read that orcs were made from elves, those who care to look can read that orcs likely reincarnate as orcs after being slain, and that it is believed that in between their spirits are trapped in something called the "crucible of souls" or the "cesspit of fire".

They will not read that the Wise believe orcs can be made from the captured elven dead. But if they come to that conclusion, there are others who share it. They will be asked not to spread it around. It would upset people, and there is nothing to be done about it but <em>follow the call of Mandos</em>.

"It is not," Galadriel says to Elrond one evening in Imladris, "that being trapped in endless reincarnations as an orc is so much worse than all the other atrocities Morgoth and Sauron might visit upon the houseless. It is simply so glaring and obvious that it is an ongoing atrocity, that even if it is not happening to someone you care about it is certainly happening to someone, many someones."

Elrond sighs agreement. She wonders if he's thinking of Maedhros.)

#tolkien #orc bank #Arda etc

[eldamaranquendi]

Bregolas by peet

'The son of Boromir was Bregor, whose sons were Bregolas and Barahir ...' J.R.R. Tolkien: The Silmarillion: Chapter 17: Of the Coming of Men into the West

'In the time that followed Túrin grew high in favour with Orodreth, and well-nigh all hearts were turned to him in Nargothrond. For he was young, and only now reached his full manhood; and he was in truth the son of Morwen Eledhwen to look upon: dark-haired and pale-skinned, with grey eyes, and his face more beautiful than any other among mortal Men, in the Elder Days. His speech and bearing were that of the ancient kingdom of Doriath, and even among the Elves he might be taken for one from the great houses of the Noldor; therefore many called him Adanedhel, the Elf-Man.' JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion: Chaper 21: Of Túrin Turambar

Cirdan, Lord of the Falathrimby peet

'Some [Ossë] persuaded to remain; and those were the Falathrim, the Elves of the Falas, who in after days had dwellings at the havens of Brithombar and Eglarest, the first mariners in Middle-earth and the first makers of ships. Círdan the Shipwright was their lord.'

JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion: Chapter 5: Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

Hurin of the Keys by peet

'Is there no deed to do?' she said. 'Who commands in this City?' 'I do not rightly know,' he answered. 'Such things are not my care. There is a marshal over the Riders of Rohan; and the Lord Húrin, I am told, commands the men of Gondor. But the Lord Faramir is by right the Steward of the City.'

JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Book VI,  Chapter 5: The Steward and the King

Olorin by peet

'Wisest of the Maiar was Olórin. He too dwelt in Lórien, but his ways took him often to the house of Nienna, and of her he learned pity and patience. Of Melian much is told in the Quenta Silmarillion. But of Olórin that tale does not speak; for though he loved the Elves, he walked among them unseen, or in form as one of them, and they did not know whence came the fair visions or the promptings of wisdom that he put into their hearts. In later days he was the friend of all the Children of Ilúvatar, and took pity on their sorrows; and those who listened to him awoke from despair and put away the imaginations of darkness.' JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion: VALAQUENTA: Account of the Valar and Maiar according to the lore of the Eldar

Nerdanel the Wise by peet

'While still in his early youth he wedded Nerdanel, the daughter of a great smith named Mahtan, among those of the Noldor most dear to Aulë; and of Mahtan he learned much of the making of things in metal and in stone. Nerdanel also was firm of will, but more patient than Fëanor, desiring to understand minds rather than to master them, and at first she restrained him when the fire of his heart grew too hot; but his later deeds grieved her, and they became estranged.'

JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion: Chapter 6: Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor

Feanor's Betrayal at Losgar by peet

‘Then Fëanor laughed as one fey, and he cried: ‘None and none! What I have left behind I count now no loss; needless baggage on the road it has proved. Let those that cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!’ JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion: Chapter 9: Of the Flight of the Noldor

Lord Denethor by peet

'Hail, Lord and Steward of Minas Tirith, Denethor son of Ecthelion! I am come with counsel and tidings in this dark hour.'Then the old man looked up. Pippin saw his carven face with its proud bones and skin like ivory, and the long curved nose between the dark deep eyes; and he was reminded not so much of Boromir as of Aragorn. 'Dark indeed is the hour,' said the old man, 'and at such times you are wont to come, Mithrandir. But though all the signs forebode that the doom of Gondor is drawing nigh, less now to me is that darkness than my own darkness.'

JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Book V, Chapter 1: Minas Tirith

Queen Beruthiel by peet

''Do not be afraid!' said Aragorn. There was a pause longer than usual, and Gandalf and Gimli were whispering together; the others were crowded behind, waiting anxiously. 'Do not be afraid! I have been with him on many a journey, if never on one so dark; and there are tales of Rivendell of greater deeds of his than any that I have seen. He will not go astray - if there is any path to find. He has led us in here against our fears, but he will lead us out again, at whatever cost to himself. He is surer of finding the way home in a blind night than the cats of Queen Berúthiel.'' JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Book II, Chapter 4: A Journey in the Dark

Isildur Healed by peet

'But Isildur came at last hardly back to Rómenna and delivered the fruit to the hands of Amandil, ere his strength failed him. Then the fruit was planted in secret, and it was blessed by Amandil; and a shoot arose from it and sprouted in the spring. But when its first leaf opened then Isildur, who had lain long and come near to death, arose and was troubled no more by his wounds.' JRR Tolkien: The Silmarillion: AKALLEBÊTH: The Downfall of Númenór 

#tolkien #jrrt #jrr tolkien #the silmarilion #silmarillion #The Lord of the Rings #lord of the rings #lotr #elves #bregolas #isildur #Turin Turambar #beruthiel #denethor #feanor #Nerdanel #Hurin from Keys #gandalf #olorin

[lesbiansforboromir]

Impossible LotR Quiz Answer sheet with explanations!

As an addendum, since people have been doing the quiz I’ve seen a few mistypes and awkwardnesses that are my own fault so I’ve corrected them. This means some people got a higher score than was shown, know that when I looked over your answers I saw your actually right answers and fully appreciated them! It’s good to not that the ‘fill in the blanks’ questions will not take two words in one space, so I’ve had to get creative with how I apply two named folk like Mardil Voronwe, or people who have numbers like Hurin I.

I would also like to say, to everyone talking about how they’ve never read the Silmarillion, this quiz is very purposefully almost entirely based outside of the Silmarillion. This is Appendices stuff! Indeed there is only 1 question even tangentally related to elves in here, this is by design. 

@magaramach, @brynnmclean and @apojiiislands asked to be tagged in this! Answers under the cut. 

Q2. Who was Dora Baggins in relation to Bilbo Baggins? - Second cousin on his father's side Dora Baggins is a very elderly woman who was the daughter of Bilbo’s father’s brother. She likes writing people a lot of unsolicited advice! THIS WAS WRONG AND SAID FIRST COUSIN FOR SO LONG AND I AM DEEPLY SORRY FOR IT.

Q3. How many pairs of biological twins are mentioned in the whole of Arda's timeline and what races do they belong too? - 2 for men, 1 for elves and 3 for half-elves Fastred and Folcred, Haleth and Haldar (men) Amrod and Amras (elves) Elured and Elurin, Elrond and Elros, Elladan and Elrohir (half-elves) Now, admittedly Elladan and Elrohir are never actually described as twins. However they appear completely identical and have the same birth date, so it is assumed.

Q4. Baldor is who the skeleton scratching at the door used to be. When Aragorn and co pass through the paths of the dead they find a skeleton clawing at a door to the mountain. It is finely dressed and described as mighty and was later essentially confirmed to be Baldor, the eldest son of King Brego of Rohan, also called Baldor the hapless, who foolishly wandered into the paths of the dead on, apparently, a dare. (the answer to this was originally Brego because of a foolish typo from me, many apologies!)

Q5. When was the Ondonóre Nómesseron Minaþurie written? - During Meneldil's reign. “Enquiry into the Place-names of Gondor” was a text written by settled numenoreans about their new kingdom during Meneldil’s reign, who was the first sole King of Gondor after both Anarion (his father) and Isildur had perished.   

Q6. Farmer Maggot's particular friend was Tom Bombadil  It is stated that Farmer Maggot sometimes peacefully passes through the Old Forest to go and meet Tom Bombadil, who very much enjoys his company. However! Those who answered Merry or Pippin still deserve excellent recognition, Farmer Maggot was indeed fond of Pippin and respected Merry greatly.

Q7. What was the office of the Steward originally created to do? - Keep the Tradition of Isildur When Romendacil I went to war in the east, he realised that if he died then the secret of the Tradition of Isildur would die with him. Hence he wrote it down in a sealed scoll and gave it to a trusted confidante, to be given to his heir if he should perish. This tradition was maintained by further kings and those trusted confidantes became the Stewards of Gondor. This, admittedly, is a more suggested progression than explicit, but it’s a Impossible evil quiz so :) Q8. What was the 'Tradition of Isildur'? - Remember where Elendil was buried. Elendil had been secretly entombed in Calenardhon, supposedly the midpoint between Gondor and Arnor. This was a hallowed space for only Kings at first, but in later years when the Stewards came to rule Gondor they also were permitted the secret. Cirion had the remains moved when Calenardhon was gifted to the Eotheod to eventually become a part of the Kingdom of Rohan. 

Q9. At the time of Pelargir's founding, is the world flat or round? - Flat. Pelargir was founded as a ‘Faithful Numenorean’ haven on the river Anduin. Therefore it was built before Numenor’s destruction in the Akallabeth, the reason for which being that Eru turned the world from flat to round. 

Q10. Which of these monarchs were indolent and had no interest in ruling? - King Atanatar I - King Narmacil I - Tar-Vanimelde King Atanatar I ruled during Gondor’s richest generation and seemed to believe that meant he didn’t need to put any work in. Narmacil I, his son, didn’t want to put any work in, but he at least assigned his nephew, Minalcar, as ‘Karma-Kundo’ or regent during his reign. So he at least did something to keep the country going. Tar-Vanimelde had no interest in ruling and allowed her husband to do most of the governence. This backfired when she died and he organised a coup against his son to hold power.

Q11. When looking back on the Ship-Kings of Gondor, King Tarannon Falastur began the invasion of Harad and expanded Gondor's borders, King Earnil-I finally took Umbar but died at sea shortly afterwards, King Ciryandil spent most of his reign trying to defend Umbar and died in it's seige and King Hyarmendacil defended Umbar against seiges for 35 years before making war upon all Harad and claiming Harondor as a province of Gondor, ending the line of the Ship Kings.

Q12. What happened during the reign of King Romendacil II? - I don't know! Nothing? Yes I know this is particularly evil of me but Romendacil II was originally called Minalcar, yes the same Minalcar who became REGENT of Gondor due to Narmacil’s indolent nature. Minalcar indeed did everything else listed as answers to this question, but none of them happened during his reign as king. Indeed, his reign was said to be peaceful and we have no real information on it, so technically saying we don’t know, and suggesting nothing happened, is actually the most correct answer :)

Q13. Who succeeded Tar-Telperien of Numenor? - Her nephew, Minastir Tar-Telperien was a lesbian Queen of Numenor who never married and never wanted too and did an excellent job and I love her. Her nephew built a tower to mope in about how much he wanted to be an elf. They are not the same. Absolutely terrified about what Amazon could do to her. 

Q14. Whilst his brethren, the nazgul, were attacking the Prancing Pony, The Witch-King was waiting in the Barrow Downs and probably had a really nice time. Not much to this! Witch King was chilling with the Barrow Wights. 

Q15. Which of these characters are described as 'beautiful' at least once in the Lord of the Rings? - Galadriel, Denethor, Eowyn, Frodo, Elanor, Celeborn, Boromir Yes, Arwen is never described as beautiful, but Denethor is :)

Q16. We all love Boromir II, select the similarities he and Boromir I did NOT share. - Renowned relationship with the Rohirrim. - Destroyed the Bridge of Osgiliath - Feared by the Witch King - Retook Ithilien. - Had a brother. In case you’re wondering, yes, I love both Boromirs. But this question is a fun highlight of how many similarities Boromir II has with his namesake. These are the only things they didn’t both do. Although! Boromir I’s son was Cirion who allied with the Eotheod and created Rohan in the first place, the Uruk-Hai destroyed the Bridge of Osgiliath in Boromir I’s lifetime, Boromir II was PROBABLY feared by the witch-king we just don’t know, Boromir II held Ithilien and Boromir I had two elder sisters like Denethor II did.

Q17. Hey, did you know that, from Boromir I's war with the Uruk-Hai of the Morgul Vale, Gondor didn't know peace until Sauron's death on the 25th of March, 3019? Hah hah! How gut wrenching is that? About how long do you think it has been since Gondor knew peace then? Hey wait does that mean Boromir I's valiant victory that came at a personal sacrifice was the beginning of Gondor's wars and then Boromir II's valiant sacrifice was the end- oh god... oh fuck - 550 years To everyone who answered the crossed out answer,,, you’re correct in my heart. You get bonus points. Also hey! What the fuck :) 

Q18. Who was Borondir? - The rider sent to find Eorl who made it to him after starving himself for two days but who then rode to the Celebrant with Eorl anyway and died in that battle. Literally couldn’t love this fellow more. Big Hirgon energy. A hero of Gondor for time immemorial. 

Q19. The Ruling Stewards, from first to last (with their numbers typed as so Turin-I Hurin-II etc), were as follows; Mardil ; Eradan ; Herion ; Belegorn ; Hurin-I ; Turin-I ; Hador ; Barahir ; Dior ; Denethor-I ; Boromir-I ; Cirion ; Hallas ; Hurin-II ; Belecthor-I ; Orodreth ; Ecthelion-I ; Egalmoth ; Beren ; Beregond ; Belecthor-II ; Thorondir ; Turin-II ; Turgon ; Ecthelion-II ; Denethor-II ; and for like two seconds ; Faramir ; Alrighty, we had a bit of a fight in my discord about this but eventually I did relent in agreement that Faramir IS... very briefly... legally considered a RULING Steward. Ruling Stewards being Stewards that ruled a Kingless Gondor. But! With Aragorn RIGHT THERE is just seemed very redundant. Still! I’ll allow the pedant to win out, ten minutes is still a Ruling Steward. ALSO! I decided that having an extra box for the ‘voronwe’ part of mardil voronwe was just mean as it set everyone’s answers off kilter, so I removed that. ALSO for all of those calling me a bastard for adding this question, @illegalstargender was the one who requested it! I wasn’t going too! 

Q20. The Stewards, despite ruling through very tumultuous and violent periods, were often known for boring things (because they simply ruled better than the Kings did, I said what I said) But what boring thing was Steward Turin I remembered for? - Being the only monarch of Gondor that married twice This skeezy bastard really did marry a second time during his OLD age just to father a son. I can only imagine what a dreadful cultural and social effect this had on this prude country. It’s so unnecessary! He had daughters, many of them! One of them certainly had a son before he did. He was just being a controlling arse, down with Turin I!!!!

#my quiz

[tilions]

hey! yo! you mind talking a bit more about the extended fëanorian family ocs you have? how many there are, how they’re related, when they’re born, the rough arc of their life?

Hello thank you for your ask! No I don't mind talking about them at all! I love them all very much but please be prepared that this is going to be a long one and that I couldn't even fit everything I want to talk about in here

I have talked about Maglor's, Caranthir's and Curufin's wives before so I left them out on purpose. So I'm just going to talk about the third and fourth generation here.

If you exclude Elrond and Elros Maglor and his wife Cellin have four children and in order of their birth their names are Gilloth, Nelladon, Gilrin and Belegur. Gilloth has a son named Arrod, none of the other three are married or have children. Curufin and his wife Aiwë have one more child besides Celebrimbor, Aracundo. Celebrimbor himself has a son named Aenion. Caranthir and Calairie remain childless. I'm not sure yet where Gil-Galad belongs family wise in my headcanon but let's just assume he's Orodreth's son for convenience.

I don't exactly have stories for them all. Aracundo, Nelladon and Aenion are probably the most fleshed out one's when it comes to their stories but I love them all regardless.

A badly drawn family tree for reference. If you want some more details there are about 2k words of bullet points under the cut :)

Gilloth

Daughter of one of Maedhros's guards and Maglor's second in command

Born some time before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad

Both her parents die in the Nirnaeth, and she is taken in by Maglor and his wife Cellin and is raised as their daughter

Loses her voice during the War of Wrath but refuses to tell anyone how it happened (possible Trauma related?)

Helps Celebrimbor run Eregion in the S.A

Is very interested in architecture and has great talent

Also helps with the construction of Rivendell and moves there after Eregion falls

Has great impact on her siblings upbringing

She and Erestor start courting after Glorfindel locks them in a room together and only allows them out after Erestor confesses his feelings

They marry mid Third Age

Their only child is called Araráto or Arrod in Sindarin

Because Maglor has given all his children a father name (be they his real children or not) she got one as well

It's Tintanárë (Sparkling Fire)

She's very close with Aracundo especially during the latter half of the second Age and the early Third Age

Her favourite people in Middle Earth are dwarves. She gets along well with them and even learns some Khuzdul from Narvi because she can't just reveal the secret

She is very strong at Oswanë and uses is constantly to communicate

Elrond has a lot of headaches because she directs her absurd thoughts at him to annoy him

Arrod is her sunshine and she would die for him

Not a very good warrior but she's doing her best

Aracundo

Second Born son of Curufin and Aiwë of the Teleri

Fathername: Artafinwë (Exalted Finwë)

He's my depressed disaster gay

Tall boy™ (maybe even taller than Maedhros?)

Born: 464 F.A (same year as Turin because reasons) in Nargothrond

He doesn't remember his dad because his parents parted ways after the Lúthien incident

He grows up in Cirdans care because that's where his mom took him

His best friend growing up was Ereinion even though the other is several years older than him

He doesn't have a lot of temperament and is more like his mother, calm and sensitive

Fights in the War of Wrath as Ereinion's second in command but is more known for his strategies and not for his actions on the battlefield

He and Ereinion get married early into the Second Age (yes he's Gil-Galad's husband and they love each other very much fight me)

He goes absolutely berserk once he sees his brother used as a banner of Sauron's forces after Eregion falls and probably takes down half their army by himself

People who knew Maedhros had a very very vivid flashback that day

When his mother sails not long after he remains in Middle Earth to fight Sauron

He gets much more quiet and reserved after losing his brother, mother and nephew in one go

He is very much pro Last Alliance and openly supports Elendil but mostly because he wants to avenge Celebrimbor's death

Uh… you know who dies during that battle? Ereinion and Aracundo blames himself for it

He stops speaking and becomes a shadow of himself afterwards

Refuses both the crown and Vilya

Lives with Cirdan for some time but moves to Rivendell after Celebrían sails to support Elrond

Has no big part in the second ring war

He sails alongside Cirdan and Celeborn

His life gets from good to worse to tragic to suffering

But he gets reunited with Ereinion in Valinor so it's not a total tragedy

Nelladon

Maglor's and Cellin's first biological child

Born: 1700 S.A

Died: 2770 T.A.

Has Nerdanel's signature red hair but otherwise full on takes after his mother's side of the family

His fathername is Russanáro (copper fire)

Aso has the epithets Copperhead from the dwarves, Pityatinto (Little Sparkle) from his grandfather and Tyalmahto (Toymaker) from the Numenorians

Self sacrificing idiot (we'll get to that later)

His passion is toymaking but also woodworking but he's also a great singer and loves storytelling

For every new baby family member he makes an abundance of toys and when all of them grow up he travels the world to make toys for the children of other families

The only members of his own family to never receive a toy from him are his younger brother Belegur, as well as his cousins on his mother's side of the family (all of them are born after his death)

A very good boy, only wants to make the people happy

He finds Aenion again with the dwarves of Erebor after they establish their kingdom there

Tries to talk him into visiting their family but stays unsuccessful until his death

Speaking of his death and self sacrificing

He dies during Smaugs attack on Erebor while he tries to make time for Thrain and Thror to escape. He faces Smaug in the throne room with nothing more than a iron shield on him

And burns

He fully knew he was going to die but he did it for his friends

Probably aroace

Also the first member of the House of Fëanor to get re-embodied

Gilrin

Maglor's and Cellin's only biological daughter and Fëanor's only biological granddaughter

Born: 20 T.A.

Like Celegorm she takes after Miriel in terms of appearance but inherited her grandfather Tinwës blonde hair

Not the tallest but still like half an inch taller than Fëanor and Curufin

Has a lot of artistic talent and can paint life like images

She painted the wall painting of Isildur cutting of Sauron's finger only with a very bad sketch from Glorfindel and a mental image provided by Galadriel as a reference

Basically always happy and smiling

Hates it when she has one-sided conversations, feels like she's intruding somehow

Celebrían is her big idol and she was devastated when she got hurt and had to sail

Was even more devastated after Nelladons death and isolated herself for a while

Starts traveling with Gildor and his group from that point on to get some distraction and is among the elves who meet Frodo, Pippin and Sam in the Shire

Will not sail until her parents do

Does her best to support Aragorn as the new king of Gondor because she feels like that's what's she owes to Elrond and partially also Elros even though she never met him

The most Avarian out of her siblings

Belegur

Finwë 2.0

Seriously the boy looks like Finwë as much as Arwen looks like Lúthien

People find it quite disturbing (People are Maglor, Glorfindel and Cirdan)

Fathername: Cuináro (living fire)

Born: either 3019 T.A. or somewhere between 10 and 50 Fourth Age

Youngest member of the House of Fëanor even younger than his youngest nephew

Elladan, Elrohir, Arwen and Arrod call him little uncle and he hates it (he loves it but pretends he hates it)

Spends most of his childhood in Gondor because his parents moved the like almost immediately to be with Aragorn and Arwen

Has a deeper connection to men than all of his other siblings (aside from Elros for obvious reasons)

He feels weird when he sees his best friends from childhood grow up, get children and then see those grow up and have children of their own all while he himself is still a child/teenager/going adult

When Elfwinë's son Éomund II. who he was closest with dies, Belegur is devastated

His relationship with mortality becomes rather complicated afterwards

Dedicated scholar and historian

Also only sails when his parents will

Has a very easy time befriending people

Probably the best warrior out of his biological siblings just because Gilrin hates fighting and Nelladon just doesn't care about weapons

In possession of the one Feanorian Braincell might as well have inherited it from his mother)

Aenion

Celebrimbor's son

Born somewhere between 1620 and 1680 S.A

I have no idea who his mother is, any suggestions?

Thought about making him the love child of Tyelpë and Annatar but this feels kinda weird but also hilarious

Looks like Curufin acts like Caranthir

Cantëacurufinwë™ (blame the fact that Tyelpë is called Nelyacurufinwë)

Aenion probably isn't his real mothername but he calls that himself and everyone just does the same

Grumpy cat™

Raised by dwarves after Eregion fell and stayed with Durin's line until the Sacking of Erebor (Thrain brought him to Rivendell)

Speaks almost no Sindarin but is fluent at Westron and Khuzdul

Has no interest in learning Quenya

Creative use of swear words

A Smith like almost everyone else in his father's line

If he is Sauron's child, he has very much cat eyes and you can't convince me otherwise, also the Ring would probably love him

He goes back to Erebor after the dwarves retake it and helps them rebuild it

Feels very guilty for Nelladons death because he couldn't convince him to flee with him

Can't look Cellin or Maglor in the eye because of this

Fights during the War of the Ring alongside the Dwarves of Erebor

Sails with Gimli and Legolas

Arrod

Son of Gilloth and Erestor

Born sometime after his parents wedding

Takes more after his father in terms of appearance but has been influenced a lot by Glorfindel growing up

A total goof

One of the elves who 'greet' Thorin and company when they arrive in Rivendell

Gets into unnecessary fights very often

Very protective

Loves Estel to death and is very sad when Aragorn grows up and doesn't want to be carried around piggyback style anymore

Does it anyways

Idk I have not thought about him a lot

Here and here are Picrews that visualise them :) || Tolkien OC Overview here

#ask #feanoriansethicsdepartment #my ocs #silm oc #lotr oc #hobbit oc #tolkien oc #oc gilloth #oc aracundo #oc gilrin #oc nelladon #oc belegur #oc aenion #oc arrod #feanorians #tolkien #silm #lotr #tinweans #because even though they're maglors kids they're still considered tinweans #my characters

[warrioreowynofrohan]

If you enjoy that so much, then Finduilas, Orodreth, Aegnor, Angrod, Faramir if LOTR is also fine; and what do you think about Tuor's ultimate fate? But please, no pressure :)

I’ll have to take a pass on Angrod and Aegnor because I don’t have enough to go on for them (of HoME, I’ve basically only read the poetic Leithian, the Athrabeth, and LaCE). For Aegnor I’ll just say that I think he was 100% wrong to ditch Andreth, and that I think he eventually leaves the Halls after realizing that Andreth would not consider “permanent sulking” to be an admirable response to having made a bad decision.

Starting with Faramir because he’s a favourite.

Thoughts on this character: I love him. He’s an amazingly wise, thoughtful and kind person. I love the entirety of his interactions with Frodo and Sam. I love that he recognizes that the Ring is not something to be used for victory in battle, even before he knows what it is, and that he rejects it once he does know. I love that he understands that battle and prowess in battle aren’t things to be celebrated for their own sake.

I love his relationship with Eowyn. I like that he’s able to get through to her because he’s talking to her as an equal and someone in the same position: not “I need to go to battle and you need to stay here” as Aragorn does (with major gendered overtones), but “We both need to stay here because we’re injured”. The core of their story isn’t about Eowyn turning away from battle to healing because she’s female, but her turning from battle to healing because, by the end of the story, battle is no longer needed and healing is a more worthy and valued pursuit for both women and men. (And turning away from despair and embracing her own healing as well, since what she wanted before was not just combat, but death in battle.) It builds directly upon Faramir’s statement to Frodo that he doesn’t want Minas Tirith to be feared or renowned for military power, but respected for learning and wisdom; and his statement that both Rohan and Gondor are flawed in now valuing war and prowess in arms as great things for their own sake.

This is up there witn Beren and Lúthien as my favourite Tolkien romance.

OTP: Faramir/Eowyn, and this one really is an OTP. Also unrequited me—>Faramir when I’m feeling particularly self-indulgent.

Favourite non-romantic relationship: I really love his interactions with Frodo and Sam. I also love one of the lines about him and Boromir: “It did not seem to Faramir than anyone could rival Boromir, heir of Denethor, Captain of the White Tower; and of like mind was Boromir.” If you read it quickly it’s easy to take it as “both brothers thought each other were awesome” and then you retead it and go, no, it’s saying “Faramir thought Boromir was awesome and so did Boromir.” Tolkien’s great at throwing some low-key shade at that kind of pride. And that line makes it all the more striking that he’s able to trust (and even predict) Frodo’s account of what happened with Boromir and the Ring - being able to both love someone and see them is absolute clarity is a very rare trait.

Unpopular opinion: None; I think unqualified adoration of Faramir is a pretty common opinion in the fandom.

Something I wish had/did happen with him in canon: I’m basically satisfied with how canon went for him. Although on second thought I’m curious about how his view of “I deem it perilous now for mortal man willfully to seek out the Elder People” would interact with Aragorn’s of “was literally raised by elves and is now married to one of them”.

There’s also interesting AU potential in the question of what would have happened if he, rather than Boromir, had gone to Rivendell.

#tolkien #the lord of the rings #faramir #eowyn

[hildorien]

I am in the minority but I’d love to know more about the pre-noldor elvish edain culture, history, and just life. 

I wanna know more about men in the context of men, I wanna see history through human eyes without the elvish perspective. 

I wanna know the full experiences of all humans in middle earth not the ones the elves interacted with. And if you have to have elves, I wanna hear about what humans thought of elves that isnt ‘oh they are so perfect and amazing and beautiful uwu’, because that’s kind of boring and we can all agree first age elves? on the whole? pretty shitty. (I love em but they have one brain cell to share among them and fuck up on the regular). 

I wanna see Humans who were born into a dumpster fire that is the world of arda, these are a people who didn’t get Orome leading them to heaven on earth, they got Morgoth. These are a people who lived in Morgoth’s land for centuries who probably experienced horror and oppression from basically their species infancy. Unlike the elves of valinor, or even the Sindarin protected by Melian, horror and despair would have not been their abnormal, it would be their everyday.  But they aren’t broken, they survive. They make families, connections, lives in this wasteland. They adapt and change, because I think in some ways that is the race of men’s true advantage over elves. That we don’t have a gap on our ‘greatness’ persay, humanity’s ambitions get’s mutated into greed a lot (I mean numenor is a dumspter fire for a reason) but I think that human ambition is a strength because it means we don’t accept our circumstances. The Edian sure didn’t. 

The edain, the Boerians, the people of haleth, and the hadorians, all marched themselves out of morgoth’s land hoping for something better, with NO GUARANTEE they find anything better.  But they still did it. And while we are here, let’s talk about how the race of men has not guarantee of anything, like elves (and dwarves) kind of know where they end up. They go to Mandos and get reborn, they go to aule, respectively. Men...don’t have that. Men really didn’t get anything (but Morgoth and suffering). They leave this world forever, thats what they know. Thats what they are told. 

But no one knows what the means. (Personally, I think its like a good place situation kind of. Eru is just michael and turin is janet) 

But anyway back to the POINT, (if there ever was one) the edain end up finding beleriand but beleriand isn’t the paradise they wanted. But hey, its not morgoth so let’s celebrate said the beorians before promptly getting found by finrod. And look elves did a lot of good for humans, but I also think there is this really bad dynamic of elves holding all the power and men just being in it for the ride. 

Ive made the joke that the elves of the first age are kind of like the edian’s sugar daddies but it’s kind of true. They give them land and like ‘wisdom’ (whatever the fuck that means) and in return men give them their ever increasing numbers. The Silm is a very elven story we don’t really get a lot of human, but when we do I think it’s pretty interesting. Because the relationship between Elves and Men is really uneven in the first age...and all ages even though in later ages forces of men like numenor at their height could I think easily sweep the floor with the elves of the second age combined. I think culturally Elves give a lot more, like men end up picking up their language, though im one hundred percent sure human languages didn’t die out and never do, humans must have shit talked elves a LOT in taliska (oh yes, that is the name of at least the language spoken by the hadorians and beorians, the people of haleth spoke a different dialect) and I think a lot of humans give more in resources (aka men, power, infantry). I mean personally if I was having at a guess I don’t think (as the latecomers) men got very many places to actually farm and have good land and relied on elvish goods to survive. I think this unevenness kind of spurred this idea that ‘elvishness = superior’, so to make this full circle I think a lot of pre edain culture was lost to make place for diet pepsi version of elf culture that we see human cultures like numenor and gondor have, because that’s better than their orn because elves are SPECIal BETTER AND DON’T DIE LIKE US BROKEN AND FALLEN PEOPLE.  ((screams)) 

Okay let’s talk about the death thing. Human and Mortal and Men all mean the same thing, humans die is not a statement that should be up for debate. But the humans of edain, at least from what we see of Andreth is that this was not how it always was. Humans were once immortal like the elves until they were bad and listened to morgoth and then they became mortal and all sick and ew. 

yeahhhh, I don’t think thats true. I think in-universe its a great myth. I love finrod ah andreth for this reason (also andreth is tolkien’s best female character he ever created and the fact that she’s not in the published silm is why we are in the bad timeline) , but I think humans...always were mortal. 

And thats okay. 

We talked about human ambition above, I think that is fueled by the fact that we all die. We have a timer, so we have to do things now, and that’s not a bad mindset to have. I think it gets humjans into trouble but also, imagine your a human in beleriand, you have children, a family, they might have children someday you want to do what you need to do to make sure THEY have a chance. 

(also lets talk about the fucked up fact that humans are punished for lsitening to morgoth in the first place like im sorry that humans didnt have any other valar looking for them, there was no orome, no fucking chance that they could have met anyone else because no valar came for them only morgoth with his lies so yes humans are bad for listening to the only god like entity that seemed like he wanted to help them, the elves did that too but they had nice gods so they are wise while humans who have illness and sickness and death over their heads listen to a guy with power okay jirt i see your double fuckig stnarad and its STUPID) 

And you can’t wait for that chance, so you leap. I think this is best illustrated by Turin of all people. Turin gets called elvish a lot in looks but in actions, he, like most of his family, are allllllllll human. The bridge in nargothrand even though it’s stupid and ends up horribly kind of reminds me of this. Turin doesn’t have time to wait like Gwindor, and Orodreth, etc do. his people have already been fucking disomated, he’s lost his father, his mother is trapped in enemy territory.  He wants to help. 

Sure it blows up in his face, but yknow...the want to do good is there. 

I think on the whole humans get a bad rep...like they’re called stupid and dumb and ugly by both fandom and in universe elves alike. But I don’t think that’s the case. Humans have a lot more balls and have collectively been through more trauma as a species than I think all of the elves (especially valinorian) elves combined. I think when humans fuck up, whether it be turin or numenor, it’s proof of their incompetence, that their inante (eru-given ability) to have ambition to seek beyond the world they live in for something better for something more is evil and they should be more like the elves, stagnant, already at the height of ‘perfection’, never changing....instead of being humans. Like look at these fools trying to act like than can be GOOD at something, sit down and let these elves be best at everything obviously. How many of you would look at me funny if I said, maybe the race of men was BETTER THAN THE ELVES AT SOMETHING? A lot of you im sure, and someone would have a rebuttle for how I was wrong and how this elf was considered the best. 

(like that post going around how could turin actually be #that pretty to thot his way through all of beleriand? Maybe he just Was like that, sure he may have a little elvish ness but honestly I think that be a funny thing elves say to cover up the fact some elves found a icky human was actually just that fucking hot, because obviously humans could never be that actually hot ever, not to intangle a sindarin mast of a guard, a NOLDORIAN VANYAR-DESSCENT PRINCESS, ect) 

Also just to go back to numenor, ever want an example of why it doesnt work for men to act like elves...look at numenor, early numenor was as elvish as humans could produce....but then they got bored. And then numneor became an empire and everyone eventually had so much of a bad time, eru reshaped the fucking world just to wipe the valar’s ‘humans but better’ ocs off the face of the planet. Like just to stray off topic I personally think men can’t go to valinor 1) because the two trees are actually nuclear, and the whole damn island is chernobyl instant death right there and thats why the valinor elves are like #that (they GLOW for gods shake) 2) the monotonous never changing perfection of valinor while amazing in the short term for humans would eventually drive them crazy. Not to say that the race of men doesn’t like some peace and quite or even humans (like myself) can be obverse to change, even I can admit doing the same thing ever day would drive me crazy. 

This got super rambly, but its been a lot of thoughts Ive been having for a long ass time. Basically, I just want people to talk to me about the atani, edian, race of men, whatever you want to call them. They deserve a lot better and a lot more respect than just playing a supporting role to the elves. 

They didn’t kill all those dragons to be ignored like this. 

#silmarillion #race of men #what ye do in the dark #tea with milk #not undercut because I want you people to READ this #please validate meeee #silm #edain #atani #i have a lot of feeling about humans in an elf world....

[anghraine]

I love a lot about Gondor, but one of those things?

King Turambar

Steward Húrin I

Steward Túrin I

Lady Rían, daughter of the Steward Barahir

Steward Húrin II

Steward Orodreth, son of the Steward Belecthor I

Lady Morwen, daughter of Belecthor I

Steward Túrin II

Morwen of Lossarnach, descendant of a Prince of Dol Amroth

Ivriniel of Dol Amroth

Finduilas of Dol Amroth

#interestingly there are zero tuors or idrils despite all the variations on eärendil #conclusion: gondorians are specifically massive narn stans :D #anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #ondonórë blogging #also i forever love prince adrahil naming his firstborn 'ivriniel' and then being like... oops. too subtle #narn i chîn húrin #deep blogging

[alystraea]

Writing/Art Plans for 2018

@grundyscribbling, thanks for tagging me again, and for throwing in art! (always happy to be tagged, even if I don’t post because life)

FANFIC

Had these amorphous plans for fics in my head for two years, and no idea if they’d ever materialize. All titles and descriptions tentative. Will I be inspired to write this year? I can hope...

Elfseekers: a “return to Middle Earth” fic. Somewhere in the Fifth Age of Arda. There are those in Aman still haunted by memories and dreams of Ennor, and who cannot forget those who did not sail. A gifted young elvensmith creates a palantir that opens a window to the mortal lands once more. What they see in it spurs several to band together on a quest to find their lost kindred and bring them west. A follow-up to the epilogue of The Golden and the Black (Legolas, Elladan, Elrohir, Celebrimbor, Glorfindel, Maglor’s canonical wife, Maglor, Thranduil).

Nothing Gold Can Stay: a series of vignettes on Celebrimbor’s relationships with Finrod, Orodreth, Finduilas, Galadriel, Glorfindel and Annatar.

The Waking: Some of the slain are re-housed as grown elves, but others as infants or children, and their memories of the first life come back but slowly. (Mainly Maedhros and the Ambarussa.) Because I’m haunted by these lines from Roethke’s poem: I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow / I feel my fate in what I cannot fear / I learn by going where I have to go / We think by feeling. What is there to know? / I hear my being dance from ear to ear. / I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow…

Untitled: When both parties love everyone and are loved by everyone, it takes a while for them to realize this is something more (Finrod and Amarie)

Untitled: AU where it’s Celegorm and not Beren who wanders into Doriath and meets Luthien.

FANART

So many things I would love to draw!! (The list seems to get longer every week). If ever my work lightens up, I hope to start working on one or two of them:

Glorfindel at Fornost

Glorfindel at the Ford of Bruinen

Glorfindel and babies: Arwen, the twins, Estel, Earendil. (I headcanon Glorfindel as a baby whisperer)

Maglor vs Uldor at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad

Maedhros and scars.

“Wanderer-in-the-Third-Age” Series: Maglor in Rivendell, Misty Mountains, Gondor, Mirkwood, Lothlorien, and at Grey Havens.

Finarfin and Earwen at Alqualonde (continued)

Tarnin Austa at Gondolin (NOT the Fall)

Idril vs Maeglin (Fall of Gondolin)

Finrod and Turgon growing up together

Galadriel and Aredhel growing up together

Aredhel and smol Maeglin

Elven Dances series: Gondolin, Rivendell, Mirkwood

Re-do the fall of Glorfindel, and my early Finrod and Maglor portraits

Sorry I’m brain dead now and can’t think of who has already been tagged... please take this meme as being for any creative plans - writing, art, edits, etc. 

@cinemairon, @cycas, @nixiegenesis, @elesianne, @rose-of-the-bright-sea, @joyfullynervouscreator, and anyone else who wants.

#writing plans #art plans #creative plans 2018